Exclusive“Drive a Crooked Road” (1954): First Car Classic

Five o'clock? Okay, perfect. See you then. Bye. Is he coming? Yes. He'll be there at five o'clock. That's great. We'll finally have a full cast at a cast party. I just talked to John. He's coming too. Great. What are we going to do for entertainment at this party? Have food. John will be entertained. Well, of course we're going to have food. But we need something more than that. Well, I don't know. I think all these boys want to do is play Grand Theft Auto. I wouldn't call playing video games much of a party activity. Well, what would you suggest then? I think we should maybe watch a movie that has a similar feel. What classic movie could possibly have a similar feel to Grand Theft Auto? Come on, Tiffany. There are a lot of classic films about cars, but particularly about a young man who makes one wrong turn that leads him to drive a crooked road. I'm Rebecca Brannan. I'm Tiffany Brannan. Welcome to Real Thoughts on Cinema. Throughout history, men and boys have always been attracted to things that involve speed, action, and excitement. In more recent years, this mainly takes the shape of thriller movies such as The Fast and the Furious or Top Gun or the Marvel franchise or action-packed violent video games like Grand Theft Auto. Good point. There actually are a lot of classic films in this vein, such as race car movies. That's true. But a little while back, I discovered this unusual little crime film, which I think is the perfect first classic movie for all you car-loving gamers out there. And that movie is Drive a Crooked Road from 1954. This movie follows an auto mechanic in California named Eddie Shannon who works at a garage, but his real passion is racing. And he does some small races as a hobby, but he dreams of one day competing in the big European races if he can get enough money and a good enough car to go and compete in them. One day, a beautiful young woman, Barbara, comes into the garage and specifically asks for him to work on her car because someone recommended him. He's immediately drawn to her, but he's very shy. However, she persists on flirting with him and hints that she's going to be at the beach one day, so he comes and joins her. It soon starts to blossom into a romance. But then we find out she's actually the sweetheart of this sort of shady character who then invites Eddie to his house to bring Barbara to a party. Shortly after, we find out why she was acting so interested in Eddie. Steve, her sweetheart, wants him to drive the getaway car in a bank robbery. At first, when he presents this proposition to Eddie, he says absolutely not. But when he starts to feel that Barbara's feelings for him might change if he didn't accept the job, he is torn between what he knows is right and his feelings for her. This is a Columbia picture. It was directed by Richard Quine, produced by, actually, a female producer, Joni Tapps. And the screenplay was written by Blake Edwards with the adaptation by Richard Quine. And it stars Mickey Rooney, Diane Foster, and not really any other well-known actors. It's true. It's really more of a small-player piece. It's all about Mickey Rooney. Well, I have to say, that is the reason that I was interested in watching this movie. I am very familiar with a lot of Mickey Rooney's earlier work. I haven't seen that many of his later films. But this one, in all its marketing, was advertised as a new and great Mickey Rooney. And I've seen from reviews that a lot of modern viewers, especially, of his younger films sometimes find him a bit too much because he's just so energetic. So I think even the haters could be kind of brought onto his team by seeing this movie, because it's a very, very unusual performance for him. Very subtle and understated. Looking at what his career was, he started making movies when he was basically just a toddler. Like, really early talkies. And then he became quite a star in his adolescent years at MGM, like playing Andy Hardy, and then making musicals with Judy Garland. But then, after he was in his mid-20s and he couldn't pretend to be 17 anymore, he was so short, because he was only 5'2", that he never really was able to be that dashing lady man that he certainly could have been because of his talent. Right. But he just didn't fit the suit. So he ended up playing more side characters, or then, like this movie, the whole premise is based on how short and ugly he is. Yeah, it's kind of terrible how much they say that, honestly. But it's very, I think it's a very impressive feat of acting that he was known for, like, as Andy Hardy. He was really girl crazy. A lot of his characters were, and he was in real life. But in this movie, he's like, it seems like he's never really had anything to do with women before. He feels so bad about himself. He barely will make eye contact with anyone. But there are moments when you see that comes out in a way that kind of reminds you of his boyish kind of flirtation when he was younger. Yeah. His character is such an interesting study in this. The fellow we all know who is kind of awkward, and the other men at the garage feel sorry for him, at least, especially one man. The other guys are just making fun of him. But then when he thinks this beautiful glamour girl is interested in him, I mean, he can't believe it at first, and he's afraid to even look at her. Right. But she gives him just enough encouragement that he just has to think, maybe she could be interested in me. I think all the taglines are like, how could a, why would a girl like you be interested in a guy like me? Right. And that's kind of the whole premise of the movie, that he can't believe it, but eventually he thinks, well, why ask questions? This is a good thing. And it changes his whole personality. All of a sudden he's confident and can stand up to the other men. Yes, it starts out as a good thing for him, but then when it comes to this moral dilemma… Then it ends up being a bad thing, because he makes the wrong choice. Yes, he makes that wrong turn onto the crooked road, and it just devolves from there. So looking at this movie, because we sort of introduced it as something that gamers would like, or people who really don't like classic movies, or don't think they like classic movies, or people who think the movies from the 90s are classic movies. So boys, or maybe men a little older, but people in our generation, what is it about this movie that would be appealing to young men of that kind? Well… After all, it is black and white. Yes. First off, this is not really the film, but when we watched it I was just struck by, it's a very crystal clear copy, even though it's in black and white. Yeah, true. Because this is sort of later in the black and white era. Mm-hmm, mid 50s. It's crisper. Rather than 50s black and white, I feel like you saw more shading of color tones in it. But speaking about more of the film itself, when we were watching it, our mother actually commented, like, there are so many beautiful cars in this movie. And I know a lot of, even very young people, really appreciate classic cars. You see some gorgeous 50s cars in this. And there are still so many boys in there, not playing video games, who like to mess around with engines. And you see so much, there's a long sequence where he's working on this car. Mechanics. And it's really fascinating. And in order to execute this bank robbery, they show him video that they took of this road. And he's just repeatedly watching this video to learn the road. And it feels sort of like a video game. Like he's playing Grand Theft Auto. That he's learning this road from watching it. Yeah, it's so interesting. But then, like the video game, there's this added thing of, they're not being chased, but they know if they don't go fast, they're going to be chased. Because they have to make, he has to drive this stretch of road in under 20 minutes, because that's how long it's going to take for the police to be alerted. That the Palm Springs bank has been robbed. It's fascinating to me, as a native Californian. Yes. Most classic movies were filmed in California, but not that many are set here. So the fact that they're showing relocations, and they're talking about Malibu, and they're talking about Palm Desert, Palm Springs. Yeah, it was filmed at a real beach house, Malibu. I didn't know that. That's really neat. They used that to film a few other movies in the late 40s, early 50s. Then of course, when they finally are driving that road, it's a very intense race sequence. The film opens with him driving in a race. Right. So I think all those aspects combined make it very relatable. But also, I think it has a really good moral. Yes, it does. For young men in any generation. You've got to be careful of a designing woman, because there are a lot of them out there. I, as a woman, am ashamed to admit it, but it's true. He's taken in by flattery. It's so easy for anyone to be swayed by flattery. You're right. It could be the other way, too. It could be a girl being swayed by a man flattering her. You're known by the company you keep, and you can let other people's actions and how they make you feel, most of all, affect you in a negative way. It can be positive, as you see at first. It gives him confidence, but then she's just... She's using that to then manipulate him. And it's a little hard to watch, just because it's so sad to see somebody's life fall apart so quickly. And to know that she's just using him. But what I think is an interesting thing to note also is what a great character arc she has. That's true. Because she almost immediately starts to feel really guilty about it. She even tries to call it off a few times. You can tell she feels so awful. She's like, he's like a little animal. He's never had any love in his whole life. And she feels bad, of course. Steve is so callous, he couldn't care less. But she actually is sort of changed by knowing him. And even though she says, when she finally sort of reveals the plot to him, she says, I don't love you, Eddie. I never did. You kind of feel like she is starting to feel something toward him. To care about him, yeah. And in sort of the classic style of this type of crime film, not to spoil it, the ending is a little bit like, oh, that's the ending. So it's not really definite. No, it doesn't end like... It kind of leaves it open to interpretation of what's going to happen after this. It is quite short. It is. It's just about that wrong turn down the crooked road. I think it's also relatable because of his character. He's not like a really glamorous movie star. He's not a swashbuckler. He's not particularly charming. Anybody could relate with him. He's short, not particularly attractive. He's got a scar on his face. He's just an average working guy. I always respect a movie that is willing to let a scene be almost awkward, but just enough. Yeah. And that'd be the scene on the beach. There's a really extended stretch of time where she's talking and she keeps asking questions and he's just not saying anything. And it's like, we've all been in a conversation like that at some point or sort of witnessed it and you just kind of feel the tension, but it's so brilliantly done and acted because he's doing so much with his face until he doesn't know what to say. It is impressive to see a ladies' man, Mickey Rooney, being like the classic insult in this case. But he brings so much vulnerability that it's, again, very relatable. And she's not a well-known actress. I've never seen her in anything else. She didn't make a whole lot of movies, but she does a great job as the femme fatale who then eventually starts to have more of a heart, which not every femme fatale does in a movie of this sort. She, too, does transform and sees the error of her ways, at least to some degree. Something that fascinated me about this film, which is kind of an interesting side note, is just a couple years earlier, Mickey Rooney made another movie called Quicksand, which starts out with almost the exactly same premise of this auto mechanic who makes one wrong decision and it turns and destroys basically his car. Again, because of sort of a designing woman, an attractive woman who kind of brings him down the wrong path. So it's kind of interesting how he made these two kind of parallel films. That is very interesting. But this one is interesting because of the... I've chose this one over the other one because of the focus on the cars. Yes. It's what I really think is a great, relatable... Yeah, the other one's more of a crime film. This is more of a car film. This is with a little dash of crime on the side. And I think it is really touching in a way as well. It's a beautiful theme song. Yes, the theme song is so lovely. Even though you know it's not real and she's sort of playing him, there are moments of the romantic scenes that are quite soft and beautiful. Although it never reaches a stage that's overtly romantic. They don't kiss even. Right. You just feel the energy between them. It's all done with their expressions, which is quite brilliant. And it's again part of leaving him sort of guessing. He thinks she's really interested in him. Right. But she keeps calling him up and she wants to go out with him. So he thinks, well, I guess she likes me. But she doesn't make a big point of saying I'm in love with you or something like that. Right. But she implies it. Mm-hmm. So it is a very interesting choice of story arc, really, the way it's put together. Yes. I think it's fascinating that it was Richard Quine who adapted and directed it because he made a musical with Mickey Rooney back in 1940, 41. That's right. Babes on Broadway, when they were both playing young hopefuls on the Broadway stage. And you can see even then that, you know, Richard Quine was a decent actor, but he didn't have that dramatic star quality that Mickey Rooney did. Right. In the one scene, he's kind of directing the other cast members because they're putting on a show. That's his talent. You can see right there. He's like, give it lots of love. I was like, oh, now he's being a director. And that's what he ended up pursuing. And it's interesting to see, you know, like 13 years later, how Mickey Rooney is still acting in a very different type of role and now Richard Quine is directing. I've noticed kind of something about filmmaking sort of from the classic era to now is in more recent films, there's often less dialogue and more of just like focus on someone's expression. And it's interesting when you see that being done more in a classic film. And I think this is one of those cases. Obviously, there is quite a bit of dialogue because it is not very long. They have to pack it in. But they allow a lot of time to just see people's expressions. Right. And there are parts of it that are very organic. It's kind of funny sometimes like, wow, somebody actually wrote this in a script. It seems so, like the party scene. There's this other girl who's kind of drunk and keeps interjecting. And it's just, it's very spontaneous. Yeah, that's kind of a funny moment in an otherwise pretty serious film. And this is sort of the end of the classic era here in the mid 50s. Right. And it's a crime film. So it could have become very tawdry, very violent, very sordid, especially with the situation of, you could almost say, Barbara is like the maul of this criminal. Perhaps sweetheart was a bit of a soft word to use. We don't know what their relationship is. They don't live together. By the end, she hates him. Yeah. And they're talking about getting married. Right. So it seems like once they've gotten this money and they go away, they're going, she's his fiancee, exactly. But here in 1954, this is the very end of what we consider the golden age of Hollywood because that was the year that Joseph Breen retired. And he was the longtime head of the Production Code Administration, which enforced the strong moral code, the Motion Picture Production Code of Hollywood. Right. So here toward the end of his career, you could see maybe a few things getting looser, but I don't see that at all in this movie. I think it's still very much in the style of the code, yet it doesn't feel constrained or overly moralistic. And that's something that is so often misinterpreted about the code and the code era. They think everything had to be Andy Hardy. Exactly. Nothing but good, clean fun and the boy next door and really wholesome Americana. And there are always, not always, but particularly in a film of this kind, there will often be, when they're dealing with more difficult topics, there'll be a moment like, if you choose to think something more than what they're showing you, that's your choice. And I think the code is really all about, it's like the Constitution. It's all about free choice. You get to choose what you think is happening. Right. When he first refuses to do this job, then Barbara won't talk to him anymore. She won't answer the phone or she won't see him. And then he finally comes to her apartment and she says, like, come in, Eddie. And then it basically just goes to the next scene. So I feel like, I don't know, you don't really know what happened between them there. And you don't know what happens with her and Steve. Exactly. So it's all just... And you don't know what happens at the end. Because that's not what it's about. And unfortunately, well, people might have the attitude, it's like, well, the code is so restricting because you should be able to make a movie like this, but you should be able to make a movie like some modern film. But the problem with filmmakers is, if they have the choice to do this, they're not going to do it the good way. Right. I think that's kind of unfortunate that people say, oh, well, you know, you want to have both. It's like, well, no, because there's basically no such thing as a family-friendly movie anymore. To what I would consider family-friendly. Yeah. Or it always goes along with being immature. It's like a children's movie if it's family-friendly. Any age person or any age of emotional maturity, even if it's not about your age, I think anyone can watch this movie and there's nothing in it that really should offend anyone. Yeah. But it's mature. It's mature. And it doesn't seem like too tame or dull if you like more action crime suspense, but it has a lot of intensity to it while staying within confines that you wouldn't even notice if you don't really understand the code. They're there, but you don't see them. They're not like walls. Exactly. Like invisible parameters. So that's why I think this movie is really a great choice for someone who isn't really into the classic era yet. Yes. Particularly when you have a femme fatale, it's often very associated with a really glamorous fashion. But the fashion in this film is very restrained to the point I almost wonder, because I think it's a lower-budget movie, if they just had the actors wear their own clothes for the most part. They did that sometimes. I know they did do that sometimes. My outfit is inspired by one worn by Barbara one evening when Eddie is over at her apartment. It's a simple white top with the signature full swing skirt of the 50s, a thin belt, and strappy sandals. She doesn't have anything in her hair, but in another scene when she's going to the beach she wears a scarf in her hair like this, as well as some simple gold jewelry. My outfit is inspired by the first dress which we see Barbara wearing. It's a slimmer silhouette, but still with the 1950s hourglass. Hers is light-colored, but I have the darker shade, and she has shoes which are partially open on the side. I also paired it with a navy hat, as is typical of the 1950s. Best of all, this movie is very easy to find, often for free. It's currently available for free, included with Prime Video. It's also on the streaming service Tubi. There's a free copy on YouTube, and you also can rent or buy it from a few other streaming services. So it's very readily available, and it's a fun way to spend maybe an hour and a half and just have a movie night with your fellow gamers or try to encourage a friend of yours who maybe doesn't think he likes old movies to show him that he does. I say this very often, but it's very, very easy to find most classic movies if you just dig around on the Internet, and everyone in our generation should know how to do that. Yes. Just knowing the right places to look. One of the most famous genres of classic films is, of course, the Western. But there are some Westerns that stand out as being very different from the usual shoot-'em-up stereotypes. Join us next time as we talk about a genre-blending film which includes wonderful classical music, the Western element, and a wonderful patriotic spirit. Thank you for watching. Goodbye.